Fairleigh Dickinson stuns Seton Hall, with hard-fought 58-54 win

At halftime of Sunday's matinee against Seton Hall, the Fox Sports 1 television cameras were in the locker room of Fairleigh Dickinson, where head coach Greg Herenda stood in front of a dry-erase board cluttered with basketball hieroglyphics. There was one very clear message in the top right corner of the board:

New Jersey RECORD
3-1 / 2-2
WE DECIDE!!!

"People started texting me (this week) that we'd be the state champions if we won," Herenda laughed afterward. "And I said, I won the state championship in 1973 — I did that already. That wasn't more important to me. But I realized that we beat Caldwell and we beat Rutgers. And that if we beat Seton Hall, we'd be 3-1."

FDU is now 3-1 against the rest of the Garden State.

Seton Hall became the latest big-name pelt on the wall of the Knights, after Sunday's stunning 58-54 win over the Pirates. Six days after winning at Rutgers, Herenda's team turned around and beat the other big dog in the state of New Jersey. Did it the same way, with grinding defense, tough shot-making and a lot of gumption.

"It's been a tremendous feeling," said senior guard Sydney Sanders, who led all scorers with 23 points. "When we lost our first couple of games, the team would get down and the coaches were trying to keep us up. Keep believing. Keep believing that we're going to win."

Quite the turnaround for a program that lost 95 of its 121 games over the last four seasons.

"I'm not going to lie, it's been fun," said senior forward Scooter Gillette, who had 15 points.

Not so for Seton Hall.

Despite 16 points from Fuquan Edwin and 12 from Brian Oliver, the Pirates (4-3) were frustrated by FDU's (3-6) defensive pressure, resulting in 15 turnovers. By the end of the first half, Seton Hall had turned the ball over nine times and given its neighbors to the north a four-point lead — but more importantly, tons of confidence to pull another upset.

"We watched their last two games," Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard said. "We saw what they did against Rutgers. You can't come out in the first 10 minutes and play the first 10 minutes the way we did. ... That first group should be a higher-energy group and they're not."

Seton Hall never led by more than two points. It was out-rebounded by a team that had not out-rebounded an opponent in its first eight games — including against Division 2 Caldwell College in its season-opener. And yet, there was Fairleigh Dickinson, celebrating after the game by taking a picture at halfcourt of another big brother in the state.

Over behind the visiting team bench, Herenda — a North Bergen native and former assistant coach at Seton Hall — hugged family, friends and FDU alums. These days hadn't happened for four years under the old regime in Teaneck, but now had happened twice in the span of six days.

Rutgers? Seton Hall? In the same week?

Believe it.

"I'm not surprised because I really believed that we could do this," Herenda said. "But when you actually do it, then you're surprised again."